Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions - and More Than 1,000 True Origins Or Common Words and Phrases

This complete summary packed with colorful and educational anecdotes offers information about the odd origins of such diverse words and phrases as condom, sirloin, horse latitudes, harlot, and shyster.

From inside the book

Devious derivations: popular misconceptions--and more than 1, 000 true origins of common words and phrases

User Review - Not Available - Book Verdict

If William Safire and David Letterman ever collaborate on a book about words, this could be their model. Beginning with adulteress (erroneously attributed to an au pair who called grown men "adults ...Read full review

About the author (2002)

Margaret Miner and Hugh Rawson are also the editors of The New International Dictionary of Quotations, A Dictionary of Quotations from the Bible, and A Dictionary of Quotations from Shakespeare. Hugh is also the author of Wicked Words, Devious Derivations, and Rawson's Dictionary of Euphemisms andOther Doubletalk. They live in Roxbury, Connecticut.

Bibliographic information

Title

Devious Derivations: Popular Misconceptions - and More Than 1,000 True Origins Or Common Words and Phrases